Heart of the Campus: Cardiovascular Research Institute nears completion at UCSF

The $254-million project is expected to be completed by October 2010

By Greg Aragon

Crews are erecting an elaborate exterior skin on the new $254-million Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF’s Mission Bay Campus in San Francisco.

The building was designed by SmithGroup along with Jim Jennings Architecture.

The exterior system is expected to cost more than $25 million to install.

The $25.5-million exterior system is made up “of different materials and systems procured from many different sources around the world,” says Danielle Douthett, senior project manager for Redwood City-based Rudolph and Sletten, the project’s general contractor.

The new, five-story, 236,000-sq-ft building brings basic research scientists and clinicians, who are currently dispersed over several sites, together under one roof in an effort to better understand cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke are the leading cause of death and disability in the United States, accounting for roughly 950,000 deaths each year.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to develop a disease-focused research program and clinical facility literally from the ground up,” says Shaun Coughlin, MD, PhD, UCSF professor of medicine and director of CVRI. “Bringing together faculty with complementary skills in basic and clinical science will catalyze progress on the major unsolved problems in cardiovascular biology and speed the pace of translating the research into new treatments for patients.

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” When complete in October 2010, the facility will house the existing CVRI and will be home to a new UCSF Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.

Designed by the San Francisco office of SmithGroup, along with San Francisco-based Jim Jennings Architecture, the L-shaped center will feature flexible lab space spread over three floors for nearly 500 researchers. The layout will include office “clusters” on each floor.

William Diefenbach, FAIA, SmithGroup’s principal-in-charge, says the offices were placed together to promote interaction among building users. He says the interaction will be enhanced by a centrally located glass-enclosed area, where researchers will be able to meet and dine together.

“Everyone crosses through this central location, and it is a means of spontaneous interaction,” Diefenbach adds.

Diefenbach says the building is shooting for a LEED gold rating. He says LEED features will include low-flow fixtures and waterless urinals; an Energy Star reflective roof; 75% of construction waste being diverted away from landfills; the usage of 20% of recycled materials; and a 3-ft-thick underground stormwater control gravel basin.

The building is shooting for a LEED gold certification.

San Francisco-based Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture is working on the courtyard, north campus gateways and roof garden to bring the project site back to its marshland roots, says Emily Rylander, project manager.

“Evoking the site’s historic salt-marsh ecology, the design for the courtyard incorporates native grasses to filter and absorb stormwater runoff,” Rylander says. “The courtyard features a custom permeable paving system that links elements common to the larger campus with a pattern that runs though the first floor of the building and out to the public park beyond. With its meandering paths and blurred edges, it presents a relaxed, lushly planted alterative to more formal settings on campus.

” She says besides buffering winds from the nearby bay, the landscaping will define outdoor areas for meetings, lounging and intimate seating and also feature allées of palm trees, a roof garden with habitat space for birds and butterflies and a 20-ft-tall limestone entryway pillar.

Douthett says the building’s skin will boast travertine stone from Italy; terracotta tile and baguette’s from Germany; metal panels from Colorado and Pennsylvania; a polycarbonate wall system and mechanical roof screens from Pennsylvania; aluminum curtain-wall system and a utilized curtain-wall system from Fremont, Calif.; glass glazing from Minnesota; glass from China; and aluminum sunshades from Texas.

She says to help keep track of the many different materials and systems, Rudolph and Sletten is utilizing a design-build delivery method for the exterior skin.

Construction on the CVRI broke ground in March 2009. When complete, it will be the fifth research building on the 43-acre UCSF Mission Bay campus, which is located just south of downtown San Francisco. Atlantic Philanthropies donated $50 million to help fund the project.

UCSF plans to build a 289-bed, integrated hospital complex to serve children, women and cancer patients on 14.5-acre site south of the research campus. The complex is expected to be completed in 2014.